40
out for footballThe biggest turnout for football from Prairie High School that we can
remember is out for football this year as 38 Prairie students along with
2 Summit Academy students are on the team this year.
Included are several upper classmen out for the first time.Head coach Travis Mader is very optimistic about this year’s team saying
he thinks they could win as many as 5 or 6 games. This coming off a year
when Prairie didn’t win a game and was able to extend only one of those
games for the full 48 minutes.
Mader says they’ll probably favor the run this year with good looking
depth in the line and strong runners in Danny Riener and Ryan Daly. He
said Mat Forsmann is looking good at quarterback and should be able to
balance the offense with his passing. In the scrimmage Saturday Forsmann
also looked strong running the ball.
Mader said one of the team’s strengths is their coaching staff. You
have College Football Hall of Famer Teel Bruner for starters. Ron Sigler
also played college ball and Steve Wilson brings a lot of knowledge to
the game. Mader and Bruner will work with the offense, Wilson the defense
and Sigler with the offensive and defensive lines.
In Friday’s opening game at New Meadows against Meadows Valley one
of the teams will get their first win in over a year as Meadows Valley
also was winless last year. That game will be at 4 p.m. MDT, 3 p.m. our
time.
Mader said Genesee looks like the team to beat with Troy close behind
them. He feels Kendrick and Lapwai are in the next tier and that Prairie
could compete with them. Lewis County could be right there too. The game
with Lewis County on Sept. 2 will be the Pirates home opener.
The league’s top 3 teams will qualify for state this year.
Seniors
on the squad this year are Phil Henry, Mat Forsmann, Tim Russell, Chris
Schumacher, Seth Crane, Danny Enneking, Sean Daly, Clark Tacke and Sam
Forsmann from Prairie and Brandon Rehder from Summit.
Juniors are Jacob Holthaus, Eric Lerandeau, Riener, Corey Schaeffer,
Daniel Sigler, Ryan Daly, J.D. Riener, Ben Forsmann, Nate Kaschmitter,
Jordan Smith, Tony Duman, Robert Roeper, Chris Schnider, Jack Merrill and
Jared Johnson.
Sophomores are Nick Johnson, Ken Enneking and Jon Rice.
Freshmen are Zak Waller, Dom Klinkefus, Eric Daly, Kyle Daly, Mike
Matson, Ronnie Chandler, Andy Groom, Cody Miller, Chance Ratcliff, Tyler
Forsmann and Brandon Ross from Prairie and Chase Nuxoll from Summit.